Ex-ACTU boss joins Fair Work Commission

Jeff Lawrence, who was succeeded as ACTU secretary last year by Dave Oliver, has been appointed one of four deputy presidents pf the Fair Work Commission.
Photo: Arsineh Houspian

by
Mark Skulley

Workplace Relations Minister
Bill Shorten
has included former ACTU secretary
Jeff Lawrence
in a series of appointments to the national workplace tribunal, the Fair Work Commission.

Mr Shorten has appointed two new vice-presidents to the commission: Law Council of Australia president Joe Catanzariti, who heads the workplace relations section at the legal firm Clayton Utz, and Adam Hartcher, a senior counsel based in Sydney who has often appeared for unions.

Mr Lawrence, who was succeeded as ACTU secretary last year by
Dave Oliver
, was appointed one of four deputy presidents, it was announced on Thursday.

The other appointments as deputy presidents are sitting commissioner Ingrid Asbury, who is from an employer background, former Maurice Blackburn lawyer Anne Gooley, and the head of Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s workplace relations practice, Val Gostencnik.

‘Labor mates’ network alive and well: Abetz

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The Opposition’s workplace spokesman, Eric Abetz, said the appointment of Mr Lawrence showed a “Labor mates" network was alive and well.

“Concerningly this is the same Jeff Lawrence who said recently “All I’ve ever wanted to do, or intend to do, is work for unions’," Senator Abetz said.

“The question is, does Mr Lawrence in his new role as a deputy president at the FWC still hold the same view?"

Mr Shorten has been under pressure from employers to balance appointments to the commission, although the appointment of Mr Lawrence had long been rumoured.

Flawed process: ACCI

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s chief executive, Peter Anderson, said it was “disrespectful to the private sector" that none of the eight appointments had an active current role in industry or from among employer bodies.

“The vice presidency appointments, the most important, are the product of a flawed process in which the government effectively demoted office-holders two and three in the tribunal hierarchy and now appoints new lawyers over and above their heads," he said.

“That unprincipled approach undermines the standing of the commission and industry confidence in it.

“In making these criticisms of the flawed process and the collective imbalance of appointments, ACCI makes no comment on the eight individuals who now achieve or are promoted to high office and who should be congratulated for having done so."

‘Too many chiefs’" AMMA

The Australian Mines and Metals Association said the creation of the new positions was not recommended by last year’s review of the Fair Work Act and it was puzzled over the need to make the appointments, which were also queried by the Law Council of Australia

The AMMA was concerned the government had appointed “too many chiefs and not enough Indians" to the commission.

“This is a system that is supposed to minimise industrial disputes but the government is loading up on senior members in anticipation of a much busier and more activist tribunal. This is inconsistent with allowing employers and employees to agree on their own workplace priorities."

Mr Knott argued that 18 of the 26 Fair Work appointments made under Labor had had direct links to the party or trade unions, or undertaken legal work for trade unions.

“The recent appointments reflect an ALP version of the ‘merit principle’ that requires appointees to have worked directly or indirectly with Minister Shorten and/or President Ross. There is a danger that the tribunal will be perceived as a plaything of the ALP and their union affiliates."

However, Mr Knott congratulated Mr Lawrence, saying that employers had held him in “high regard" during his time as ACTU.

Wilson, Johns appointed

The government has also appointed the Fair Work Ombudsman, Nick Wilson, and its construction watchdog, Leigh Johns, as Fair Work commissioners.

Mr Wilson has been the Fair Work Ombudsman since 2009. Mr Johns is the chief executive of the Fair Work Building and Construction inspectorate and previously headed its predecessor body, the Australian Building and Construction Commission.

Mr Johns took over the top job at the ABCC in 2010 and steered a more moderate path than his predecessor, John Lloyd, who was a Howard government appointee.

Soon after taking up the position, Mr Johns reviewed the use of the ABCC’s controversial royal commission-style investigatory powers after a magistrate threw out a case against a worker, Ark Tribe, for refusing to attend a compulsory ABCC hearing.

The magistrate ruled that the former ABCC chief, Mr Lloyd had not ­properly delegated his investigatory functions. The same defect was later found in all 203 of the so-called section 52 notices the commission had issued over five years.

Mr Johns broadened the ABCC’s role to pay more attention to underpayment of workers and sham contracting, rather than concentrating on allegations of misbehaviour by unions and union officials.

Senator
Abetz
criticised Mr Johns for retaining his ALP membership while serving as head of the construction watchdog. It emerged in April 2011 that Mr Johns was no longer an ALP member, but a spokesman said his resignation came “before and was unrelated" to a speech by Senator Abetz at the free market H. R. Nicholls Society.

The government was criticised for replacing the ABCC, which was created in 2005. The new body created last year, the FWBC, has reduced powers and access to lower penalties in the courts.

But Mr Johns hit back against the criticism, saying it came from “groupies" of the ABCC. “I’ve been content to ignore the criticism by the uninformed and the statements of those who seek to serve up their myths as facts," he said. “However, I’m no longer willing to let those untruths stand."

He argued that the FWBC was investigating more unlawful industrial action and coercion cases than in the past, as well as pursuing more claims of underpayment by employers.